Address of ECAJ Deputy President Robert Goot AO SC to World Jewish Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Robert Goot AO SC is also chair of the World Jewish Congress’ policy council.

This version of his address with intro­duct­ory notes was first published in the Aus­trali­an Jewish News.

Kol Yi arevim zeh ba zeh – all of Israel are respons­ible for each other.

Espe­cially since October 7, the heart of Jews every­where beat together. So it was that last Thursday, leaders of the Jewish world – in the presence of the Pres­id­ents of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, ministers, special envoys to combat antisemitism, ambas­sad­ors, par­lia­ment­ari­ans, and other leaders of civil society from 47 countries – joined thousands of Argen­tini­an Jews gathered in Buenos Aires.

They met at the plenary session of the Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence of Special Envoys, Par­lia­ment­ari­ans and Jewish leaders under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress and its regional affiliate the Latin American Jewish Congress, to com­mem­or­ate the 30^th anniversary of the barbaric act of terrorism per­pet­rated on 18 July 1994, when a bomb laden van was detonated in the AMIA community centre in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injuring over 300 innocent Argen­tini­an civilians. I was given the honour on behalf of the Jewish lead­er­ship, of address­ing the audience of more than 1,000 at that plenary session.

The AMIA bombing which followed the 17 March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and injuring 242 innocents, remains the deadliest terror attack in Argentina and until the unspeak­able events of October 7, the deadliest single attack against Jews since the Shoah.

Both events in Buenos Aires were terrorist attacks on Jewish insti­tu­tions designed to kill as many Jews as possible. Both attacks were sponsored and planned by the Iranian Islamic theocracy. Both events were part of a pattern of heinous crimes, not just against the Jewish people, but against non-Jews as well – indeed they were crimes against humanity. A pattern that continues to this day.

We stand with our brothers and sisters of the Argen­tini­an Jewish community, to pay homage and to honour the victims and express our enduring and heartfelt support to their families and to the survivors of those bombings.

They are the ones who for 32 years have grieved, have agonised over and suffered from, not just the cata­stroph­ic events them­selves, but also from the alleged, mis­hand­ling, intrigue, incom­pet­ence and cor­rup­tion, that has marred the invest­ig­a­tion into the bombings and has failed to bring anyone to justice. 114 dead, 542 injured and not one con­vic­tion – no justice.

Argentine pro­sec­utor Alberto Nisman published an indict­ment accusing the Iranian Gov­ern­ment of directing the bombing, and Hezbollah of carrying it out. In January 2015, Alberto Nisman, filed a 300-page complaint making accus­a­tions of a “cover up” of the Iranian citizens allegedly involved in the AMIA bombing. Three days later, on the day he was to address the gov­ern­ment on his complaint, Alberto Nisman was found dead at his home in Buenos Aires, in sus­pi­cious cir­cum­stances. In a very real sense, the cour­ageous and prin­cipled Nisman whose widow is in the audience, became the 86^th victim of the AMIA bombing.

But finally some positive devel­op­ments. On 11 April 2024, almost 30 years after it occurred, the highest criminal court in Argentina, held that: the AMIA bombing was organized, planned, financed and executed under the direction of the Islamic State of Iran; was carried out by Hezbollah; was a crime against humanity; and that Tehran was also to blame for the Israel Embassy bombing.

And the Argen­tini­an Par­lia­ment has before it proposed legis­la­tion giving Argen­tini­an Courts the jur­is­dic­tion to try in absentia, those behind the bombings and just last week the Gov­ern­ment pro­scribed Hamas as a terrorist organ­isa­tion.

This has been an agonising and torturous road travelled by the families of the victims and the survivors. But their journey for justice is not yet over.

The tyr­an­nic­al theocracy of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, were respons­ible for the 1992 and 1994 bombings, just as that regime and its proxy Hamas, were respons­ible for the utter depravity that was visited upon Israel and its citizens on October 7.

We are horrified by the tragic and senseless loss of life and the suffering of the families of victims and of the survivors, as well as by the gen­er­a­tions of Jews who will continue to be trau­mat­ised by these events.

Let us under­stand, that each of these murderous attacks, were not simply attacks on Jews or Israelis, but jihad, seeking to undermine and even­tu­ally replace: the rules of law; western demo­crat­ic values; and ulti­mately, our gov­ern­ments and way of life.

And let there be no mis­un­der­stand­ing either, that there can never be any equi­val­ence between the barbaric acts we com­mem­or­ate here and Israel’s right to defend itself in its exist­en­tial battle against Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Gov­ern­ments and civil society together, must bear firmly in mind, the words of the German play­wright Bertolt Brecht, in his unmis­take­able reference to Hitler, in the play “The Rise of the Res­ist­ible Arturo Ui”, when he wrote, with brutal accuracy:

“For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.”

We will prevail. We must prevail. Together we will redouble our efforts, to put a stop to the scourge of antisemitism. Am Y’Israel chai.